Homeowner blames household mold for ugly selfies and poor health

Sara Smith thought she’d scored a sick deal on her $400,000 house — until learning that the house was making her sick. 

It was a devastating discovery for the 28-year-old newlywed and husband, Colin, based in Columbus, Ohio, who’d sunk their savings into the mold-infested money-pit that’s left Smith drowning in a sea of medical bills. 

But, thanks to a slew of social media sleuths, as well as a fungus-sniffing dog, the millennial’s hellish home didn’t land her in the hospital. 

“TikTok told me to get out of there,” Smith, a procurement analyst, told Kennedy News of her mold-ridden residence. 

Shortly after becoming a homeowner in May 2024, the blond was suddenly struck with a rash on her eyelids. 

She noticed the severe redness around her eyes while snapping selfies — pictures she felt looked “ugly.” Thinking the discoloration was merely a result of inflammation, Smith turned to strangers online for suggestions and support. 

Folks on cyberspace immediately blamed her new place. 

“It really saved my life,” raved Smith. “If it wasn’t for them commenting, I would still believe it was some internal eczema thing.”

The digital detectives warned that her health problems were likely due to undetected mold in the six-figure abode. 

And they were right on the money. 

Mold is a type of fungus that thrives in warm, damp and humid environments, releasing airborne spores that can spread throughout a home and easily be inhaled. It’s been known to turn dream addresses into nightmarish danger zones. 

The uninvited houseguest can hide places such as “the backside of drywall, wallpaper, or paneling, the top side of ceiling tiles, the underside of carpets and pads,” according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA — the federal agency responsible for protecting human health and the environment. 

“Inhaling or touching mold or mold spores may cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals,” continued the experts. “Allergic responses include hay fever-type symptoms, such as sneezing, runny nose, red eyes, and skin rash (dermatitis).”

Smith became afflicted with similar medical issues just days after settling into to her pad. 

“Two days after moving in I started having severe sinus congestion, which I thought was just a cold,” she recalled. 

“I went to my primary care provider and she said it’s just a cold,” added Smith. “I went to an allergist a couple of weeks later and they gave me steroids — that helped for about two weeks but it returned.”

Over time, her symptoms intensified. 

“Six months in, the eye stuff happened. It started to look like a pink eye shadow and then more like a mask,” said Smith. “The rash was really itchy and it would bleed and crack when dry.”

The condition would worsen as she carried out everyday tasks around the house. 

“Whenever I worked out the sweat would make it burn so badly,” Smith remembered. “Any type of face wash on it would be the most terrible experience ever.”

“I thought I would post and see if people have any tips.”

After receiving the alarming tip about mold, Smith and Colin hired a mold dog to inspect the property. The professional pup found water damage in nearly every room of the house. The biggest stain was lurking under the carpet.

“My husband ripped off the carpet in the bedroom and it was covered in mold,” moaned Smith, who, alongside Colin, had done a mold inspection before buying the headache house. 

At the time, some fungus was detected in the basement — but the real troublemakers were “stuck between insulation,” and nearly impossible to spot with the naked eye. 

“[At some point someone] painted the ceiling white where the water damage was,” said Smith, now grappling with mental health issues brought on by the sickening annoyance. 

“The thing about mold is it makes you really anxious and depressed,” she lamented. “So, I never went to see my friends, and I looked ugly, so I thought I couldn’t leave the house like this.”

The financial weight of the grimy bugaboo is weighing on her, too. 

“We had remediation completed last week, the estimate is $10,000,” Smith revealed. “The insurance doesn’t cover mold, so I’m not getting a dime for this.”

She and Collin had also been forced to trash the majority of their prized possessions. 

“I have to get rid of 90% of my items, down to electronics because the mold spores get so deep in there,” said the beleaguered belle, who admits that the mold has also taken a toll on her marriage. 

“My husband isn’t experiencing anything, he doesn’t work from home and he is pretty active outside of the house,“ she said. “I’m staying at my family members’ houses, I have been back and forth to my in-laws and parents’ houses.”

“It has been super stressful, especially for a marriage,” the recent bride confessed. “Living under our parents’ roof has been really hard.”

Wedded woes aside, Smith’s body is on the mend.   

“My eyes started getting better about two weeks after moving back to my parents’ house,” she said. “They are fully healed now but because of the amount of exposure they’ve flared again because I had to go to the house to get rid of my stuff.”

But the hapless gal stills shutters to think of the day-to-day exposure she once had to the in-house pest. 

“I work from home and I work out at home in the basement where there is significant mold,” said Smith, the recipient of a $5,000 GoFundMe campaign, seeking monies toward rehabilitating the house. 

“Then I would take a shower in my moldy bathroom,” she added, “then I would pick out clothes from my moldy closet and wash them in my moldy washer and dryer, and sleep in my moldy bedroom.”

It’s an experience that left an indelible mark on her heart.

“I’m so depressed, there has been a lot in my head,” said Smith. “Whenever I think of the house, it used to bring me so much joy.”

“Now, I think of it with such disdain — it makes me sick.”